Pinterest Inspiration: Kite Themed Treat Bag

Ranjini here today with a Pinterest inspired project using the new Prairie Hill collection. If you haven’t yet seen Pinterest and established an account there, you’ll want to do so!  Pinterest is an amazing site, full of visual inspiration and provides a way to catalog that inspiration, much like the way in which graphic designers keep inspiration boards as jumping off points for their designs. Pinterest allows you to create different boards based on your needs and tastes, and then “pin” images from the internet to those boards for later reference and inspiration. It’s also a great resource to follow what others are pinning as well. For me, it’s revolutionized the way I look for design inspiration.

My challenge was to create a project based on an image from Pinterest that inspired me.  I chose these images, based on the kite imagery employed in the Prairie Hill Collection. I loved the kites being used as decor for the drink,  as well as the little valentine kites and the profusion of kites and flowers in the floral arch in the second image. All of these were great stepping off points for me to conceptualize a project using the lovely Prairie Hill collection, and worked perfectly for my idea.

image from Pinterest

image from Pinterest

image from Pinterest

For my project, I chose to make a glassine treat bag containing a large chocolate bar with the kites as decor. Because the bag is going to be given as a gift to celebrate a recent achievement, I chose to create the kite in such a way that the recipient can remove them from the bag and mount them on a wall at work or place them in a cup for decor. They can even be used as a cake topper.

I created the kites by making my own pattern which I cut from heavy cardstock. The kite measures 5″ wide by 7″ across and it’s quite easy to make a pattern. Simply cut a 5×7 rectangle, then mark the sides of the rectangle 4.5 inches up from the bottom on both right and left sides.  Mark the top and bottom of the rectangle at 2.5 inches. Connect the dots at each side and you’ll have a diamond shape to cut out and use as a pattern.

Then I used five wooden coffee stirrers (the 7.5″ long kind that can be found at Panera Bread or Starbucks) and glued these to the backs of the kites from point to point on the diamond. Then I used my Crop a Dile to punch a hole at each diamond point, threaded the points with string, and tied off at the bottom making sure to leave plenty of string for the kite tail. Add additional hole punched sticks for height as needed, connecting sticks with glue, then tying off with string for support. (I used crochet threads).

Then I used a punch to create the bows on the kite tails and created both fronts and backs, sandwiching the string between the little centers of each bow.

Then I embellished the glassine bag and the chocolate bar, stamping the bag and adding details to the kite centers.

Finally, glue the kite tails down to the front of the glassine bag. You can insert the kites and tape them into place inside the bag so that they won’t move. This is what the bag looks like with the chocolate bar removed:

Your decorated gift bag is now ready for giving!

Pink Paislee Supplies Used:

• Prairie Hill Accolade Stickers
• Prairie Hill Element Stickers
• Prairie Hill Clear Stamps
• Prairie Hill Collection Papers (6×6 pad) and 1 sheet of 12×12 for wrapping the chocolate bar

Other Supplies Used:

• Scallop Die (Papertrey Ink)
• Prize Ribbon Punch (kite tails) (Jenni Bowlin for Fiskars)
• Crochet Thread or string
• Wooden Coffee Stirrer Sticks
• Large Glassine Bag (Papertrey Ink)
• Colorbox Fluid Chalk Inkpad (Charcoal)

Thanks for stopping by to view my post today, I hope it has inspired you to utilize Pinterest as a fabulous resource for creative inspiration!